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Handbook "How to understand a united Europe?" in 11 languages

Experts from 10 countries, within EU by CITIZENS project created a manual on basic information about united Europe, its history, values and institutions.

The European Union is facing up to the mistrust of European citizens. The Maison de l’Europe de Paris and its partners are convinced that, by stimulating the knowledge of the history and the current role of the European Union, the distrust which prevails these days might disappear. Therefore, the Maison de l’Europe de Paris developed the EUbyCITIZENS project, which aims to reach many citizens from various groups through partners established in 10 countries.

The project took place in Member States (France, Bulgaria, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Romania) and candidate countries (Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia), from East to West in Europe. This political and geographical diversity represents the wealth of European culture. It allows having a contrasting outlook of the EU and its issues and guarantees the relevance of the project.

The goal was to give the keys for a better understanding of European history and current European policies in order to better involve the citizens in the democratic process. To this end, experts from civil society debate in several countries with citizens representatives on three topics: the history of the European Union, its values, and the impact of European policies in daily life. They wrote together a booklet entitled “The European Union seen by the European citizens”.

The partners met with the experts and citizens representatives: in February 2016 in Paris during a preliminary meeting, and then for six meetings to draft the booklet (in April 2016 in Warsaw, June 2016 in Sofia, September 2016 in Belgrade, December 2016 in Lubjana, January 2017 in Barcelona and March 2017 in Bucharest).